[This reflection by Dazz Jones was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 19/Nov/2023]
The journey of faith is compared to a race in the Bible, this is to highlight the importance of endurance and staying on course, being focussed. “A huge cloud of witnesses is all around us. So let us throw off everything that stands in our way. Let us throw off any sin that holds on to us so tightly. And let us keep on running the race marked out for us.” (Hebrews 12:1, NIRV). This verse encourages Jesus’ followers to shrug off the burdens of sin or distraction so we can focus on the path ahead of us, which Jesus trod.
In my experience, the best and worst thing about running is how quickly it can stop being hard if you just … stop. The furthest I’ve ever run is 10 kilometres and that took me over an hour … which is a lot of running (at least as far as I’m concerned!). Whenever I run, the little voice in my head, the temptation that is always there is to just stop … to just to ‘walk for a bit’. Sometimes that’s probably a good idea, injury is not fun for anyone. Yet what I have found rewarding about running is that when I don’t listen to that voice, when I persevere and keep going despite that temptation to stop (and make the pain end!) is a great sense of achievement and pride; a growing sense of identity as someone who can overcome. When that is my goal, to be someone who overcomes that small voice telling me to give up and walk, it helps me keep focus on continuing to run and run.
The link to our faith is that we need to remember what the goal is. Distractions are things that draw are focus away from that goal. We could argue that the opposite of ‘dis-traction’ is traction, (that logic seems to follow?) which includes things that help us keep a grip on our path to push on to our destination. A few of these could be:
Teamwork: Running with others makes training much more enjoyable, stick at church and spend time with uplifting Christian friends.
Goal-focus: The ‘Instagram feed’ or comparison to our family and friends might make us feel like we’re ‘off course’ or create a sense that we’re ‘falling short’ in life. What is the goal of your Christian life? Sit with that question for a while to refocus yourself.
Discipline: We all hate this one. There is no denying that regular, consistent effort will produce results. We are what we continually do, Aristotle said, and history shows that to be true. Despite how we feel, sometimes we have to put in the time and force focus.
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Last week’s reflection: Where is the Prince of Peace? by Michael Goble
Contributed by Dazz Jones; © Dazz Jones